International Anarchist Statement in Solidarity with Zimbabwe's Treason Trialists

When Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight he unwittingly ignited a wave of popular uprisings and rebellions that have spread like wildfire across North Africa and the Middle East, the heat of which can be felt as far afield as Zimbabwe where, on Saturday 19th February, 46 pro-democracy activists including students, workers and trade unionists were arrested in Harare. According to police documents they were arrested for plotting an Egypt-style revolt to overthrow Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, at a meeting to discuss the fall of Hosni Mubarak and events in North Africa and the Middle East.

The arrested, who represent the Zimbabwean Federation of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZNSU) and the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), had just watched documentary news footage on the uprising in Egypt and, according to state prosecutors, were there to "organise, strategise and implement the removal of the constitutional government of Zimbabwe ... the Egyptian way".

International Anarchist Statement in Solidarity with Zimbabwe's Treason Trialists

When Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight he unwittingly ignited a wave of popular uprisings and rebellions that have spread like wildfire across North Africa and the Middle East, the heat of which can be felt as far afield as Zimbabwe where, on Saturday 19th February, 46 pro-democracy activists including students, workers and trade unionists were arrested in Harare. According to police documents they were arrested for plotting an Egypt-style revolt to overthrow Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, at a meeting to discuss the fall of Hosni Mubarak and events in North Africa and the Middle East. The arrested, who represent the Zimbabwean Federation of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZNSU) and the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), had just watched documentary news footage on the uprising in Egypt and, according to state prosecutors, were there to "organise, strategise and implement the removal of the constitutional government of Zimbabwe ... the Egyptian way".

At least eight of the people arrested, who the state considers to be ringleaders, are reported to have been beaten and tortured in custody. Amongst those arrested were HIV-positive women, who were denied treatment. One of the women arrested also had major brain surgery last year, and was beaten in police custody as one of the alleged leaders. Another broke her leg trying to escape when they were being arrested.

After spending four nights in Harare Central Prison the 46 appeared in court on Wednesday 23 February where, in addition to being charged with plotting to overthrow the government through unconstitutional means, which can carry a penalty of up to twenty years in prison, they were also charged with treason - the penalty for which could be the death sentence.

According to sources in Zimbabwe the regime’s propaganda machine has been working in overdrive to vilify the comrades arrested and to intimidate the public. With the spread of popular uprisings and revolts against authoritarian and undemocratic regimes engulfing North Africa and the Middle East there is reason to believe that Bob the Butcher and his cronies are concerned that the inspiration and example - of spontaneous uprisings of the exploited and oppressed against undemocratic regimes - could spread south, igniting an uprising to topple Mugabe himself.

Looking at what is happening to dictatorships and authoritarian regimes further north, it appears that Mugabe and his henchmen might be getting nervous, and intend to make an example of those arrested in order to weaken existing movements and struggles, but also to send a message to the people that resistance will not be tolerated. That Mugabe will not be toppled as easily as Mubarak. The new charge of treason testifies to this.

The Harare 46 were arrested because, in the magnificent events unfolding in North Africa and Middle East - for all the weaknesses and contradictions that they may have - they see a glimmer of hope. Hope in the fact that ordinary people, workers, students, the unemployed and dispossessed have the power to build pyramids for pharaohs... but that we also have the power to tear them down. To topple tyrants. They were arrested because, in their hope, Mugabe, his henchmen and tyrants everywhere see the haunting reflections of their own despotic regimes being razed to the ground.

We too have hope. We hope that, as the flames of indignation and rebellion spread, their impact grows deeper, and more profound each day. As doors are thrown open on new ideas and possibilities, we hope that people will work to consolidate the freedoms and gains won thus far through struggle, and advance through struggle without allowing their movements to be co-opted by parties, politicians or authoritarian and opportunistic leaders. We hope too that, as these emerging movements grow more confident through struggle, they develop broader, more far-reaching horizons of social transformation.

In extending our hands in solidarity with the 46 activists arrested in Zimbabwe we call on all anarchist and socialist revolutionaries, activists and seekers of real freedom everywhere to extend solidarity to all those arrested, beaten and tortured - in Zimbabwe, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and elsewhere - for daring to seek a brighter future; a future of dignity, freedom and hope.

Immediate and unconditional freedom for the Harare 46! Drop all charges now!
Immediate and unconditional freedom for everyone arrested during the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and elsewhere!

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Activists gathered in Harare on the 19th February in a closed meeting to discuss the recent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, were arrested after a planned police raid. Currently they are being held without charge and reports indicate that key members of the gathering are being subjected to physical assault by their captors. [Italiano] [Ελληνικά]

"I'll remember your face, you fucker" were the parting words of inspector Pretorius as he sped away from a group of more than thirty university students who had been harassed and assaulted by Pretorius and his SAPS uniformed colleagues for at least two hours. Students of Wits University and the University of Johannesburg, carrying paper placards and painted banners, were traveling by bus to a COSATU rally at the South African Zionist Federation where speeches were to be delivered. The COSATU rally formed part of a campaign of nationwide actions in support of the people of Gaza under the banner "Free Palestine, Isolate Apartheid Israel".

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front wishes to express its heartfelt solidarity with Mr Jerome Daniels and Mr Riedwaan Isaacs - two Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign members who, on Wednesday 2nd July, were sentenced to 12 months in prison for their political and social activism.

A comrade fighting for water and housing in Sebokeng, south of Johannesburg, was murdered by police on the night of April 30. The ZACF condemns the latest outrage in a long tale of repression of working class movements, and calls on the oppressed to stand firm in struggle.

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front declares its support for the Anti-Privatisation Forum and Coalition Against Water Privatisation activists who have recently been victims of police intimidation and violence.

The SSN has learnt with great shock the shameless cowardly coordinated assassination of comrade Ntokozo Ngozo by the ruthless and dogmatic royal police of Swaziland whose hands still drips with blood of the many martyred Swazis. These shamesless cowards should know that, by killing comrade Ntokozo Ngozo, they have crossed the line of acceptable engagement and declared war on the democratic movement as a whole.

A letter to the editor of The Times of Swaziland, which carried an article in the January 15th edition falsely saying that the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation claimed responsibility for bombing a police van.

"We are being held in a cell at Harare central (police station)," said ZACTU president Lovemore Matombo. "There are about 80 of us (here), including trade union leaders, ordinary citizens and women with children. We have just been gathered. We have not been told what charge we are facing," he said.

If our pain was turned into an art museum the most popular exhibit would showcase portraits of the South African Police Service with our bodies on the floor as their footstools. Our silenced screams chock up the airways in our throats, our tracheas burst out and with both hands we grab the artery veins in an attempt to contain the bleeding, trying to redirect this blood, this life back into the cause and yes, bang, bang, bang; you keep shooting and yes bang, bang, bang, we keep running.

On the 13th April, people in South Africa were stunned. On the evening news the sight of six police force members brutally beating a man, Andries Tatane, to death was aired. The images of the police smashing his body with batons and repeatedly firing rubber bullets into his chest struck a cord; people were simply shocked and appalled. Literally hundreds of articles followed in the press, politicians of all stripes also hopped on the bandwagon and said they lamented his death; and most called for the police to receive appropriate training to deal with ‘crowd control’ – after all, elections are a month away.
Andries Tatane’s death was the culmination of a protest march in the Free State town of Ficksburg. The march involved over 4,000 people, who undertook the action to demand the very basics of life - decent housing, access to water and electricity, and jobs.

For a long time now, ordinary Zimbabweans have had a legitimate expectation that South Africa will use its leverage as the biggest political and economic power in Sub Saharan Africa to support the realization of the democratic ideals of the people of Zimbabwe and help resolve the crippling poverty and socio-economic breakdown gripping the nation.

This is a public statement by the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), the mainstream political opposition movement in Swaziland. We, the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZACF) of southern Africa, also organise in Swaziland and support the pro-democracy movement, but agitate for it to go beyond the usual bourgeois betrayal and involve a destruction of the Swazi capitalist state and its replacement by decentralised popular assemblies of communities and producers. As the only revolutionary organisation in Swaziland, our members are among those who have suffered jail at the hands of the monarchist police, so our position is directly informed by personal experience.

Activists gathered in Harare on the 19th February in a closed meeting to discuss the recent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, were arrested after a planned police raid. Currently they are being held without charge and reports indicate that key members of the gathering are being subjected to physical assault by their captors. [Italiano] [Ελληνικά]

"I'll remember your face, you fucker" were the parting words of inspector Pretorius as he sped away from a group of more than thirty university students who had been harassed and assaulted by Pretorius and his SAPS uniformed colleagues for at least two hours. Students of Wits University and the University of Johannesburg, carrying paper placards and painted banners, were traveling by bus to a COSATU rally at the South African Zionist Federation where speeches were to be delivered. The COSATU rally formed part of a campaign of nationwide actions in support of the people of Gaza under the banner "Free Palestine, Isolate Apartheid Israel".

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front wishes to express its heartfelt solidarity with Mr Jerome Daniels and Mr Riedwaan Isaacs - two Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign members who, on Wednesday 2nd July, were sentenced to 12 months in prison for their political and social activism.

A comrade fighting for water and housing in Sebokeng, south of Johannesburg, was murdered by police on the night of April 30. The ZACF condemns the latest outrage in a long tale of repression of working class movements, and calls on the oppressed to stand firm in struggle.